weird, dirty scent on hair.

[Cinnamon.locks]

Hi, just wanted to know if this is normal or not.

Ok i have tried going no poo for a almost a year, first i tried WO but scalp and hair didn't like it so went into extending my washing to once a month ( just washing once a month with Poo. suave's aloe and waterlilly.) but everyone around me keeps telling me that my scalp smells awful, specially after 2 and more days after i wash. even when i do CO every five days during that month of no poo. i've tried spraying the scalp and hair with a mix of oil, Aloe vera gel, condish and scented oil every day before bunning or braiding but people keep saying it smells terrible. ( i can't smell the scalp so cannot add my comments.) is it nornal for the scalp to smell bad even after you have trained it to go for a long time without shampoo? i've been told it smells like something died in my scalp, that it smells sweaty, that it smells like i haven't washed in months, but i have no flakes or weird white stuff on the scalp. it does get a bit itchy after four days of no poo, even after CO my scalp is itchy until i shampoo again.

I live in a very warm climate and don't have constant access to Air Conditioner so maybe it is the normal scent of my scalp due to sweat? if anyone can help i'd appreciate it alot.

[ChatoyantLocks]

A question: Did this problem just start recently, or has it been a problem for as long as you have tried this method?

[Gumball]

I remember going through WO and CO for a while and my hair got a little smell for a while. I spaced out washes for quite a bit and in that one case I figured it was because I did a lot of oiling, but it never really got rinsed out. I think then it may have just gotten a little funky on my head and a nice cleansing took care of it. Of course that was also back in the day when I didn't realize CO with a coney conditioner wasn't necessarily the best thing for me. You could always try eliminating one bit of your routine at a time just to see if any of them turn out to be the cause?

[sapphire-o]

Just curious: who are these "people" who think it smells bad? Are they your sisters, mother and other close family members? :) It's just that I've read people who are closely related by blood usually don't like each other's scents. I think my brother smells hideous. Everytime he's in my car I put on some perfume or find excuses to open the window. And I know he washes his hair every other day with shampoo so it really can't be too horrible.

Did you try using some essential oil or perfume on your hair? I think women commonly used scented oils on their hair before modern times.

[Cinnamon.locks]

Yes the scent has been present for as long as i have done these routines. with WO it was a worst smell now i think it's simply that i oil every night my tassel and spread the remaining oil on my scalp. and since i started using Kimo's Shea,Aloe and oil recipe the scent is different, but i just started using this recipe so it can't be the culprit. I've tried washing twice a month and it seemed to help but the only way the scent is not as bad is if i shampoo once a week. and i do worry about the shampoo, i changed to herbal essences hello hydration poo in the last 2 weeks and the scent isn't as bad, but still....it worries me to wash once a week. could it be that my scalp demands washing more often? i used to wash every day ( for more than 25 years.) and my hair paid the price with lots of tangles and dryness and damage. that is the reason why i started WO and extending the time between washes.


Yes i have tried changing the products i use, but by day 4 the scent is always the same, a ripe, dirty, sweaty smells that makes people comment. so i have started in the last week to wash every week, but i still worry that my hair could get damaged or dry due to washing more often. or is it ok to wash once a week?

[sapphire-o]

Oops, double post. Stupid internet connection. :D

[dorothea-brooke]

I don't think washing once a week can cause too much damage, if it makes you feel more comfortable with the smell issue.

Now, how does your hair actually react when you wash weekly? If it does fine, then I see no problem with it. In other words, I doubt it's causing long-term damage unless you can actually tell right away that your hair's unhappy.

HTH! :flower:

P.S. Sapphire-o's family scent theory is very interesting!

[Cinnamon.locks]

Sapphire, the people are my best friend, her daughter and some co-workers. my best friend is one of the most outspoken, but of course we live in the same property so maybe we have become like sisters? I haven't tried using perfumed oil directly on the scalp, have used a spray with a mix of oil, aloe gel, condish and perfume oil. i'm afraid that smoothing a perfumed oil directly on the scalp could cause an allergy. i sneeze when i put on perfume and my skin is very sensitive the only thing that has not cause an allergic reaction of some kind is Kimo's Shea, Aloe and Oil recipe. even vanilla oil mixed with my body cream used to cause an allergic redness and itching. that was before i started using Kimo's mix.

[Cinnamon.locks]

Actually my hair does respond nicely to washing once a week. but the ends have become a bit dry. that is why i started using the gifted Herbal essences hello hydration poo. and of course i started using Kimo's mix which helps the dryness. Fox's Shea condish mix leave in left my hair a bit greasy so when i had the chance to try Kimo's recipe as a leave in i did and i am extatic! i used to put Fantasia IC oil after every wash and CO and my hair was very happy. but like i said i do worry about my dry ends. and Kimo's recipe is helping alot. trying to trim every 6 months also to allow as much length as possible. but it is the first time i'm doing this, extending trims so much. did it once, extended the trim to once a year but my hair was very bad.

[ChatoyantLocks]

It sounds to me like this particular routine might not be working for you. (This is assuming you have had other people check besides family members.) Your best bet in that case is to start experimenting with new methods.

I'm still new to this, and am still figuring out what works best on my own hair, so take my advice with a grain of salt. What I would try if I was having the problems you describe, is to find a gentle cleanser, wash daily or every other day, using diluted vinegar rinses to re-acidify the scalp if the cleanser is basic, and apply oil after washing, while the hair is still damp. It is also possible you might be able to just wash the scalp more often, but leave the ends alone. I recently tried tucking my ends in a plastic bag and holding it up over my head while I washed my scalp, and that seemed to work.

[Cinnamon.locks]

i tried that chatoyant but the detangling was horrible. my hair is very fine and usually sticks to the scalp even after i washed so when i did try scalp only washes i had to wait until the hair dryed to comb and detangle and it was horrible, had to cut a huge knot off the right side of my scalp and i have been toying with cutting my almost waist length hair to shoulder so the layers i have naturally and the bangs i used to have will even out. the hair where the knot was cut is usually not visible so it's ok. but i will try to wash once every 5 days and see what that does to my hair. i think it likes washing more often than once a month, just the ends get dry.


thank you all for the advice, help and suggestions.

[ChatoyantLocks]

i tried that chatoyant but the detangling was horrible. my hair is very fine and usually sticks to the scalp even after i washed so when i did try scalp only washes i had to wait until the hair dryed to comb and detangle and it was horrible, had to cut a huge knot off the right side of my scalp


Just a quick question - why did you have to wait until your hair was dry to detangle? When I was done washing my scalp, and taking my shower, I took the ends back out of the bag, and they got wet from the water dripping from my scalp. (Since I hadn't soaped them, the ends still had the oils on them, and turned out quite nice.) It seems like at that point you would be able to detangle while still wet?

[Nat242]

Sapphire, the people are my best friend, her daughter and some co-workers. my best friend is one of the most outspoken, but of course we live in the same property so maybe we have become like sisters? <snip>

Just thought I'd let you know that the scent theory is based on genetics - someone with very similar genes will smell less attractive to you than someone with genes very different from your own. Diverse genes = stronger offspring. My sisters and father are sometimes (rarely) "smelly" to me, but my partner never, ever smells bad to me. So, even though you and your best friend are close, unless you are related genetically, she's not reacting badly to a "normal" odour due to your genetic incompatibility. /end hijack

As for damaging your hair by more frequent washing, well, I wash every second day - though I sometimes stretch this by using an airing powder (dry shampoo) and/or doing scalp washes. It's true that hair is more fragile when wet, so be gentle with it, and use gentle products, and I'm sure you'll be fine washing once a week; even more often if required.

[Cinnamon.locks]

Chatoyant i never thought of wetting my hair after washing the scalp. i thought the entire idea of scalp only washing was to not get the rest of the hair wet. so stupid of me. i'll do the scalp only wash and then wet and condish my hair and comb then. i am such a clutz sometimes!


Nat very good to know. yep i guess washing once every week would be fine as long as i take extreme care of my hair and protect it. thanks for the advise.

[ChatoyantLocks]

Chatoyant i never thought of wetting my hair after washing the scalp. i thought the entire idea of scalp only washing was to not get the rest of the hair wet. so stupid of me. i'll do the scalp only wash and then wet and condish my hair and comb then. i am such a clutz sometimes!


Glad to help! I'm not even sure the wet/dry end distinction would have occurred to me if I hadn't tried that technique for the first time recently, and been slightly baffled when I got out of the shower over what I was supposed to do next. I think it might be one of those details like "dilute vinegar before using as a vinegar rinse", and "get hair wet before applying coconut oil", that sometimes get glossed over in an abbreviated form. Plus it wouldn't surprise me if some people do keep the ends pinned up and dry during the whole process.

[aisling]

Ohh please, just wash a little more often, shampoo once a week won't kill you hair! Perhaps you should try a different shampoo as well, it sounds like the one you're using isn't very good for you (as "natural" as it is). Natural, ecological and so isn't always the best thing for you, my scalp needs a good scrubbing every now and then with a harsh sulphate shampoo to stay happy and my hair hasn't fallen out yet :)

and yes, the idea with scalp washing is not to get your ends wet, even if some seem to think otherwise.

[Shanarana]

Just a thought, but could it be possible that something in our diet my contribute to a different oder that we expel?

[frizzinator]

My experience indicates that the products we use, shampoo, conditioner, oil, etc... are the cause of the bad smell, especially when there is an extended time between washdays.


A clear example of my experience happened last year when I quit CO and started WO once a week. My head was under the faucet for 20 minutes during each WO. It required 4 weeks of WO before I stopped smelling the conditioner in my hair that I had used the last time I practiced CO (4 weeks earlier).


Therefore, it required somewhere between 60 to 80 minutes of rinsing my scalp and hair with water to completely remove every trace of conditioner. Just imagine what kind of smell accumulates when the scent of more than one product lingers in your hair and on your scalp, and when you extend your washes the accumulation of sebum combines with that lingering product smell.


I have not used products or water for nearly a year. I maintain my hair and scalp with daily scritching, scalp massage and preening. You could try daily scritching and massage, but I doubt that the smell created by products can be controlled in any way other than with regular washing.

[BlndeInDisguise]

Plus it wouldn't surprise me if some people do keep the ends pinned up and dry during the whole process.

That would be me! :D

I never thought about taking it down and getting it wet and using conditioner, though.....might have to try that. Though my hair is not tangled after I take it down. And the way I do it, saves on conditioner.;)

[levelek]

The problem is that strangers are much less likely to go up to you and say "hi, your scalp reeks" than family members :)

Is it possible that the smell is produced as your natural sebum and sweat breaks down? The process might be aggravated by the oil or some other product that you put on your scalp. I'm just shooting in the dark here, in case you don't manually 'redistribute' your sebum towards the ends of your hair etc. (Sorry if you mentioned something about this already, I tried to read all your posts, but I found them difficult to read with the lack of capitalising etc. so I might have overlooked it :flower:)

[Arctic]

Have you tried CWC washing technique? It protects the ends and length with conditioner while you wash your scalp, and minimises the shampoo damage. Also helps with tangling.

I think washing once or twice aweek is not too much. And after all, water = moisture :)

[Solange]

Why did you decide to go no 'poo? Is it because of dryness? I wash my hair as often as I feel it needs to be washed to avoid a smelly scalp. I used to wash it once a week, but honestly, I'm more comfortable with twice a week. Jojoba oil is the best thing I've ever found for my hair; I use it after every wash, and my ends aren't dry. Wearing it up more often made a difference too.

Note: This is advice from someone with a sensitive nose who, as a consequence, has developed a paranoia as to her own odours.

[Cinnamon.locks]

Thanks everyone for the help, suggestions and comments. i haven't tried CWC, don't know how to scritch? (SP) but i do think the problem could be that the sweat and sebum plus the scent of the oil and shea butter might mix to give off a weird scent. plus i tend to run my hands across the scalp hair after washing my hands, so the scent of the soap could also be turning the natural smell a bit rancid.


For the past year i started trying to go no poo to minimize the damage to my hair. it seems that no matter what i do or how careful i am with my hair it ends up getting damaged, or could it be simple dryness? i always thought that my hair became even more fragile once it reached my waist, and the last time my hair reached TBL it looked so dry and damaged that on New Year's eve 2006/new year's day 2007 i decided to cut half the length and pamper the remaining hair even more so far it works well.

But that is why i went WO and after 3 months changed to extending the time between washes. i will continue washing once or twice a week for a few weeks and see if the hair reacts well.

The products i use are basic ( Suave naturals aloe and waterlilly and for the past 2 washes i've used herbal essences hello hydration poo. i use a mix of Suave professionals; literally mixed in one bottle. humectant, xtreme strength and biobasics. and went back to L'oreal's nature therapy mega moisture condish. the last works amazingly well and makes my hair soft and shiny without any extra oils or butters. ) I CO once a week with Suave Naturals tropical coconut, and started to bun wet for a few hours before letting it down before sleep. I usually braid every night for sleep, brush twice a day with a BBB and braid again, then smooth a little bit of the shea, aloe and oil recipe mix on the tassel before bed. that is my regular routine between washes.


I thank everyone for their help. will try and do a poo wash once a week and then CO once a week and see if it helps the smell.

[Darkhorse1]

Before mixing with oils/scents etc, I'd go to your doctor. Any foul smell can be an indication of an over all medical health issue--not necessarily due to your hair either.

A few questions:
1. Have you changed your diet recently? Foods can emit through your skin, such as onions, garlic etc. Depending on how this is broken down in your body, we get odors.
2. Have you lost alot of weight recently? A change in metebolic rate has been reported to cause bad odor when sweating (and your scalp sweats)
3. Fungus. You may have a fungal infection in your scalp you are unaware of.

Those are just a few things to consider.

I know that some days, if I'm around friends at the barn, and it's a very humid day, odors are more pronounced (such as horse urine from the stalls/muck pile etc). We don't wash our hair before hitting the barn, and sometimes I notice the natural oil smell of someones unwashed hair. To me, it doesn't smell bad, it just smells like oils. Any foul/bad smell I would attribute to a medical condition. My brother got Mono and hepatitis, and he had a very poor smell due to his liver being compramised. So, I would see your doctor first and ascertain you are ok.

[Darkhorse1]

Ahh--just noticed you recently quit smoking. That'll do it. The impurities you've inhaled are being emitting from your body. It'll take about a month or longer for that to fully get out of your system. I'd still go to your doctor to ascertain you have no underlying medical condition.

Good luck!!

[Cinnamon.locks]

yep, quit smoking recently and even my skin smells weird because of that, i did not think the scent could be affected on my scalp, but i guess that's it. the entire mixture is causing the strange smell. thanks for reminding me of that.

No illness that i am aware of, went to doc about 1 month ago and got a good check up. no loss of weight ( although i need to lose some weight. ) food is the same, varied and strange sometimes. no fungus that i know, asked my niece to brush my hair today and asked her to check my scalp and she sighed, saying how nice and pink it was. ( she's going through a bad hair period, lost alot of hair in the last 2 years and has been doing and trying all products and recipes to get the hair back. but no luck yet. )

[spidermom]

My son gets lazy about washing his hair and does WO a lot. I can smell his head from 10 or more paces; it's really icky. I know that if I get sweaty in the garden and only rinse my hair with water, my head/hair will smell sour until I CO or shampoo it. CWC with diluted shampoo and oiling the ends works really-really well for me. No stench and no dry ends.

[heidi w.]

What is going on is the acid mantle has an aroma. My money's on the incredibly long distance between hair washes. I once--in-a-while end up washing my hair about once every 2 weeks, and there's no getting around the disgusting smell.

The acid mantle is about pH, a balance struck between sweat and sebum. The acid mantle is a protective material.

Some people, however, have an oily acid mantle whereas others have a dry acid mantle. Still others have a just fine acid mantle. Some have issues such as psoriasis, exczema and so on.... just to elaborate a tad so you get the idea.

Washing once a week should not be overly damaging to hair. This would be my recommended maximum length to wait to wash hair of any type, with any method.

Most average folks tend to only be able to wait around every third (3) day and then need to wash because of some sweat (even if you don't exercise or hang in the sun -- body temp rises at interval(s) during the night). Sebum tends to build slightly and that pungent odor begins to rear its head.

That odor is typically from the bacteria eating the sebum, as a way of explaining it. Bacteria that's ever present, in an effort to maintain the acid mantle, but with lacking washing, that bacteria can definitely grow out of control. It can even then penetrate the acid mantle and enter hair follicles and you can have little inflammations or infections of the hair follicle, and in this way, an increase in hair loss can potentially arise.

Here's a quick overview to understand the very basics of the acid mantle:
http://www.smartskincare.com/skinbiology/sebum.html
In addition to helping protect skin from "the elements" (such as wind or pollutants), acid mantle also inhibits the growth of harmful bacteria and fungi. If acid mantle is disrupted or loses its acidity, the skin becomes more prone to damage and infection. The loss of acid mantle is one of the side-effects of washing the skin with soaps or detergents of moderate or high strength.

My money's on that your acid mantle is a bit wacked out from washing so infrequently in a manner that ensures that bacteria is removed and the acidity of the scalp skin is maintained in good order. I'm betting it's more the lack of frequency than the method of hair wash. You may need to consider using a diluted shampoo on occasion in addition to whatever method you choose to wash your hair. There are plenty of shampoo type products that do not use sulfates in the shampoo! You may at this particular juncture need to clarify the hair.

If you note your hair is overly stringy or sectioned, this means that you need to wash in a manner that reliably allows all strands to be free from becoming bundled together (other than normal curl format). You have a lot of "oil" (from sebum to applied oil) bundling strands together in clumps, in this possible scenario.

When I take my hair down when enduring an extended season of non-hairwashing, the aroma becomes clear and more & more pungent and obvious. The hair also sections and looks darker from sebum. It's disgusting, even to my nose.

You claim you have no sebum: I am positive you have sebacious glands and some production thereof. One possibility is that sebum has now hardened and formed a kind of film on the head, and scratching may not lift this up; however, itchiness will arise. When so built up, too, it is not white. It is yellow or sincerely off white (as in a kind of gray or beige).

It's pretty well known that washing the hair is not so much the hair itself as it is a need to maintain hygiene of the scalp skin. There are any number of scalp skin (and other skin, or dermatological) disorders that can arise in an unclean environment, not the least of which is aroma that's unpleasant and clearly noticeable up to and including hair loss and bald spots in some types of situations. I could provide you link after link with photos, text after text to reference about hygiene of the acid mantle. None likely are your situation.

I just think you need to find a way to wash more frequently and to reliably cleanse that scalp skin (consider scritching before hair washes!). Then you should have no further issues with complaints about aroma. In the act of various intimacies, from a friendly hug with a friend, to walking by a person and a small bit of air movement arises up to some bed action with a partner, this pungent odor of the hair is striking and very off-putting in our society.

You do not need to wash daily. Somewhere around 3-4 days. Most need to wash at least about twice a week even if they only hold an office job. Adding oils, ointments and sprays to "cover" the aroma actually makes it worse and is generally ineffective for this type of odor.

heidi w.

[heidi w.]

yep, quit smoking recently and even my skin smells weird because of that, i did not think the scent could be affected on my scalp, but i guess that's it. the entire mixture is causing the strange smell. thanks for reminding me of that.

No illness that i am aware of, went to doc about 1 month ago and got a good check up. no loss of weight ( although i need to lose some weight. ) food is the same, varied and strange sometimes. no fungus that i know, asked my niece to brush my hair today and asked her to check my scalp and she sighed, saying how nice and pink it was. ( she's going through a bad hair period, lost alot of hair in the last 2 years and has been doing and trying all products and recipes to get the hair back. but no luck yet. )

get the neice a blood test to check for thyroid or anemia

heidi w.

[Kirin]

There's a few contributing factors to "stinky hair".

Transdermal transgression of things we have ingested, food, beverages, and the like, even healthy things can stink coming out. If you eat a whole head of garlic, smell your skin oils the next day, eeeeeeeew-eee!

This one I just learned in the past year that was plaguing my daughter. Mold. Yup, thats right, mold. Sweat, water, or anything that keeps the hair damp will start forming mold. If you sweat alot and aren't washing this away (with anything but water or natural soaps) if you get mold in your hair, its not going anywhere. Hair "musties" as its known can start unpleasant and then become positively RANK.

Botanicals and natural oils can go rancid on your head. Even essential oils can go rancid, perfumes too. What you are using to "cover it up" might just make the problem worse a few days later. (Though many love coconut oils and olive oil, once it touches your hands which may contain dirt or bacteria, and is left out or humidity gets to it with heat, voila, recipie for rancid head).

Your hair picks up odors from the enviornments around you. You may not smoke anymore, but do others around you? Cooking smoke/grease oils from kitchens, smelly musties from stores, restaurants, others houses, your job. Dust, dirt, and everything else will just get sucked up by hair like a vaccuum cleaner.

Your pillowcase might be your enemy. If you aren't washing your hair every day, change that pillow case EVERY day! All the aroma your hair is picking up daily (plus airborn dirts smells and the like) are getting transferred to the pillow case. In effect, after a day or two you are "Marinating" in stink.

You do not need to wash your hair more if you don't feel like it. if your hair is "clean" and in good condition besides the smell, then don't change it. Keep away from the perfumes oils and the like as well, its probably temporarily masking and in the long run just making it worse.

Instead, try good ol baking soda (the wonder odor absorber) dry, NOT wet. Sprinkle through your hair, work in, brush out. Clean your brushes and combs too very well. If you don't like baking soda, try some of the dry shampoos you can brush through your hair, they are very good at keeping the hair from moisture buildup of sweat and humidity, and removing odor.

[Cinnamon.locks]

Heid, Kirin thank you both! now i understand alot more about this situation. thanks for the extensive info, trully needed it the help from everyone.


Washing with poo tomorrow and will try and either wash with poo or CO twice a week to get the worst of the smell out from now on.


To everyone who responded, suggested, commented and helped THANK YOU! HUGS!

[Rain76]

I am very new here, but I just don't understand the reasoning behind not shampooing one's hair. Hair was meant to be washed & cleaned, just like the rest of our bodies, and on a regular basis. I can't even go 2 days without washing my hair. It would be so nasty & oily & smelly! Of course, I do have an oily scalp, so I guess I could understand if someone with a dry scalp went maybe a few days w/o washing. But a MONTH!? AAAAHHHH. I think anyone's hair would reek if it wasn't washed in a month. I really am not trying to be rude, and I hope I don't offend anyone. I know we all have our reasons for doing things, and I understand that washing one's hair does cause damage to a certain extent. But I also think it can be taken a bit too far. Just my 2 cents:) Again, if I offended anyone, I am sorry.

[spidermom]

If you haven't already, try diluting the shampoo. I've discovered that a small amount of shampoo shaken up in warm water cleans very well without that "stripped dry" feeling.